News

Fear No Other to run at Doomben

28th Jul 2009

Racing And Sports - Tuesday, 28 July 2009

Trainer Liam Birchley remains hopeful Inglis Classic winner Fear No Other can qualify for next month's $1 million Golden Rose despite ruling out a chance to earn more prizemoney at Rosehill than at Doomben on Saturday.

Fear No Other, who finished second in his comeback in the Southern Cross Ten Plate (1200m) at Grafton on July 16, is nominated for the $70,000 Rosebud Quality (1200m) at Rosehill but Birchley prefers an 1110-metre three-year-old race worth $50,000 at Doomben.

Glen Colless has been booked to ride Fear No Other at Doomben replacing Stathi Katsidis who was aboard the son of Iglesia at Grafton.

The lure of a $50,000 bonus enticed Birchley to run Fear No Other at Grafton as the two-year-old desperately needs prizemoney to qualify for the Group One Golden Rose (1400m) on August 29.

"I still think he's six months away from his best but if he can get enough prizemoney our plan is to run in the Golden Rose," Birchley said.

"But he won't go to Sydney unless he's doing well in our company here and he's not yet qualified for the Golden Rose.

"The prizemoney he earned by winning the Inglis Classic in January doesn't count towards the Golden Rose.

"I nominated him for the Rosebud at Rosehill purely to see what weight he'd get in Sydney but he'll be definitely running at Doomben."

Meanwhile, exciting filly Kiss Me Katy showed she was on track for her upcoming Sydney assignments with a commanding barrier trial win at Doomben on Tuesday.

Kiss Me Katy led all the way to win a 1060-metre trial by almost a length with stablemate Go Cart finishing a handy fourth.

Both will head south next week with Kiss Me Katy resuming in the Group Three San Domenico Stakes (1000m) on Saturday week while Go Cart will resume following a successful winter campaign on the same day.

Trainer Steve O'Dea is looking at the Princess Series in Sydney with Kiss Me Katy who has won four of her five starts including her last-start victory in the Listed Sir Douglas Wadley (1200m) at Eagle Farm on June 6.

Go Cart is being aimed at the Group Two Warwick Stakes (1400m) at Randwick on August 22 and Group Two Chelmsford Stakes (1600m) at the same track a fortnight later.

O'Dea was delighted with Kiss Me Katy's victory, her second trial win this campaign.

"We didn't knock her about and she won quite well," O'Dea said.

"She won a trial two weeks ago and she didn't need a hard hitout today but I wanted to trial her against older horses so it would be more competitive."

O'Dea defended the decision to engage Ryan Wiggins, who will ride the pair in Sydney, and not a more high-profile jockey.

"I left it to Kiss Me Katy's owner to decide who would ride the filly but Ryan was always going down to ride Go Cart, which I part-own, so the owner stuck with Ryan as well," O'Dea said.

O'Dea originally hails from Townsville but tested the waters in Brisbane with a small team before Christmas and decided to stay permanently.

Since moving south O'Dea has made a huge impression and has won four Listed races.